INTERVIEW: Outgoing NSFAS boss Carrim praises gains while lamenting leadership turmoil

Lasting change at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will remain out of reach without long-overdue leadership stability. That is the warning from outgoing acting CEO Waseem Carrim following his appointment as head of the embattled Road Accident Fund (RAF).

Speaking to Daily Maverick, Carrim – who was brought in by then minister Nobuhle Nkabane in March 2025 to steer NSFAS through its financial crisis alongside a new board – said that despite his hard work to fix the scheme, its ongoing leadership churn ultimately undermines long-term reform.

“If you just look at the 18 months that I’ve been there, I’ve been through two ministers, administrators, three board chairpersons, six board resignations, three acting CFOs. NSFAS, in order for it to succeed, needs stable leadership, stable governance, which I don’t think is happening at the moment.”

His departure follows a tumultuous period at NSFAS. After the scheme was placed under administration, Carrim served as chief financial officer under controversial administrator Professor Hlengani Mathebula. When Mathebula was suspended following a high court ruling, Carrim was pushed back into the acting CEO role. Before being put under administration, the NSFAS board had recommended Carrim for the permanent CEO position – a promotion that never materialised, raising questions over whether he had been sidelined by Minister Buti Manamela.

“I never had any feelings of entitlement to the position of CEO of NSFAS. When I was brought in, I was asked to act, and I had my own reservations at the time, but colleagues indicated that they felt I was the right person to act. If we are honest with each other, the board has a role to play in terms of the NSFAS Act, and the minister also has a role to play in the CEO process, and both those views need to be accommodated in a certain fashion.

“In leaving NSFAS, I’m parting on good terms with the board, with the minister, with the management team. There are no ill feelings as I depart. Mine has always been to serve the state in any capacity,” said Carrim. 

“I respected the minister’s decision to place NSFAS under administration. I appreciate the engagements that I had with Professor Mathebula. They were robust but respectful in nature, and we were able to engage each other on a day-to-day basis about issues affecting the organisation. In any relationship there will always be differences of opinion, but at no point did our relationship degenerate,” said Carrim. 

Carrim on his performance

For Carrim, serving the more than 1.7 million university and TVET students reliant on NSFAS was the highlight of his tenure.

With a self-imposed goal to answer every email, he recalled a message from a young woman in a rural Eastern Cape village who was struggling with accommodation but proud to be studying at UCT.

“My passion is young people. I love their vibrancy and their militant, tell-it-like-it-is nature,” said Carrim. “I’m really going to miss that, but life is a journey, and you have to know when it’s time to move on. I’m sad, but I’m also excited.”

Historically, the scheme has been plagued by student protests over delayed funding, contentious third-party payment systems, and backlogged appeals. However, Carrim pointed to a turn in momentum, noting a drop in protests in early 2026 as NSFAS streamlined applications, filled critical vacancies, and took over direct landlord payments.

“There was a wide recognition that the 2026 application and registration cycle was one of the most efficient; we saw a very low amount of protests and things like that there for the 2026 academic year. We had to take that responsibility to ensure that we now pay the landlords directly, instead of using the middlemen,” said Carrim. 

“NSFAS’s performance achievement over the last five years was stagnant at 40%, and for the first time, in 2025-26, it achieved 64%. When we entered, employees had not signed performance agreements for five years, and there was no performance management framework. Today, 90% of employees have signed performance agreements.”

NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi echoed Carrim’s points. “Significant progress was also made in strengthening operational efficiency, including improvements in funding decisions, appeals processing, student allowance disbursements and the resolution of outstanding matters with universities and TVET colleges through the close-out project,” said Mnisi.

The sector reacts

The South African Union of Students (Saus) said it found Carrim “accessible, willing to listen to student representatives, and responsive to the concerns we raised on behalf of students across the country”. Saus spokesperson Dr Thato Masekoa said: “In our view, Mr Carrim was the right person for the role during his tenure.”

There were disagreements, Masekoa said, over outstanding payments, funding and eligibility decisions, accommodation costs and appeals. “We do not believe that constructive disagreement should be interpreted as a breakdown in relations,” he said. “Students must never pay the price for institutional instability.”

The South African Public Colleges Organisation (Sapco) took a more cautious stance, warning against focusing too heavily on Carrim’s departure. Sapco’s George Mothapo said NSFAS’s track record “should be assessed primarily through institutional outcomes rather than through the tenure of an individual alone”. He added that systemic struggles with payments, data, and accommodation require joint responsibility, as “neither colleges nor NSFAS can achieve the desired outcomes in isolation”.

Portfolio Committee on Higher Education chairperson Tebogo Letsie said, “We wish Waseem Carrim well in his role as the CEO of RAF – we believe he has done well in his tenure as the acting CEO and CFO at NSFAS.”

Carrim is set to assume his new role as CEO of the RAF on 1 November. DM